AbstractA method used by various researchers for estimation of incidence from prevalence data of a stable population for irreversible stable diseases has been validated. For this purpose a followup data was generated by life table distribution techniques with known mortality and incidence rates. The results show that the method as such cannot be used to estimate the true incidence from prevalence data of a crossectional study from stable population. The remote situation where the method will work has been discussed. A method has also been presented for situations where the known method fails i.e. duration of irreversible disease is less than the age of effected persons in a stable population.